As I go through the house cleaning, freshening and “taking my house back” after ignoring it for quite a while, I have been mortified at what I’ve allowed our closets to look like. It’s going to be a process getting them to look as I picture them in my mind.   By next spring, I’ll have the closets looking perfect, but this will happen in phases.    I’m losing weight (three weeks at work and it was a bit of a setback) and at some point I’ll be culling my wardrobe. However, until that happens, I’m hanging onto most of my clothes. Next spring I will be ready to get rid of things (translate..sell them on consignment) and that will be the time that I really organize my closets.

Meanwhile, I have to get them in some order. Here’s the painful truth…

Shame. 

So…Phase I begins.   The first thing I did was take quite a bit of the things out of the closet.   I tried to group things together.  There was the fabric stash…and there were sheet sets…and there was just stuff.

I didn’t want to buy more baskets and bins, but I needed  additional items to put “stuff” in.   I remembered some boxes Mike had brought home from Sam’s Club.

And here’s the inspiration for using the box…I’m just following the directions…”recycle”…

I decided to paint the box with chalk paint.

I’m going to do more of these boxes and I want to use something other than chalk paint.  However, this is the only thing I’ve got at the house. Living so far from a store makes everyone in Mendota very resourceful.

I like ribbon and buy all kinds of it when I see it for a good price. I knew I’d be able to use this somewhere in the bedroom.

I took the ribbon and glued it to the painted box with a hot glue gun. This is my prototype…I wanted to have an idea of what this would look like. I have so many ideas that are failures! Because I was anxious to see if it would be something I’d like, I just eyeballed putting the ribbon on the box. If I do another one, which I will, I’ll be a little more precise.

Here’s what it looks like in my closet. I added a bow and wrote “linens” on the side so I’d remember what is in the box.

I’m continuing to work on the closet and will share some pictures later in the week when Phase I is finished. Hopefully, I can work on it and some fall decor projects tomorrow, but I know that Mike has a really great job in store for me scrubbing the porch. Such as sweet guy.